For-Profits and the Public Good: A Panel & Discussion

Representatives of two accredited (WSCUC and HLC) U.S. for-profit universities, a senior officer of a global for-profit educational corporation, and two public policy officials discuss how—and whether--for-profits can actually serve the public interest when there is a financial bottom line. The recent UNESCO report Re-thinking Education: Toward a Global Common Good features a call for rethinking the commitment of higher education globally to the public good, and provides a conceptual framework to complement WSCUC’s Standard 1.1, calling for each institution-- public or private, nonprofit or for-profit--to define “ways in which it contributes to the public good.”

The key take a-ways from this session will be an understanding of how the for-profit motives of some institutions can be reconciled with a commitment to the public good and how doing well by doing good enables companies to make money while also serving the public interest. Further, the session will enable participants to understand how for-profit universities, which play a larger role globally than in the U.S., can respond positively to UNESCO’s call for all of higher education to acknowledge and address their duty to the common (public) good.